No comments or big intros. I respect your time Rocket, so just yes\no answers. After translating to Russian all the infection-related information you released, I got heavily spammed with various questions from the Russian community fans. Most of them I quote here, and part of it I ask myself.

Thanks in advance. Sorry for tons of faeces You started it.

Now prepare for about 80 questions from Russia with love.

It doesn't matter if an aspect in a question is not implemented, in development, unconfirmed or only a concept - we need to know how you, the designer, see it and its functioning and implementation.

Question #0: Are infections and antibiotics already working in the standalone and we risk being infected and able to get treatment in the released alpha-foundation version?

Poo-related

The most crucial and most important question. Will a player be able to hide or bury his or other’s faeces to keep DayZ clean?

You mentioned players will be able to choose the place for defecation. Will they be able to do it in water, in ponds and lakes at will?

If a player defecates over an item on the ground, will it get contagious?

There are many toilets around the map both in buildings and outside. Will we be able to use them as intended or they gonna stay just for design?

Will zombies react to human faeces and “investigate” it?

Will you risk being infected by just being present in the location with a lot of infected faeces or player must actually step in it to get infection?

Will players be able to detect that they stepped in faeces?

If a player is crouching over faeces will it be the same as stepping in it?

Will an infected person be able to deliberately contaminate items, food, water or bloodpacks to use it as a biological weapon?

Will antibiotics lead to dysbacteriosis and require treatment?

As for the faeces, vomit and clothing degradation, will you implement a new human sense - the smelling to be able to detect badly smelling rotting corpses, faeces, dirty clothes, dirty players, smoke from campfires or gunpowder smoke?

Will you introduce animal faeces as a source for leptospirosis or other animal-originating infections?

Will defecation be a simple non-animated non-detailed action, or players will have to crouch and wait for some time to complete it, with naked parts of body and “appropriate” sounds?

Will you implement, pardon, toilet paper to enhance the hygiene?

Will faeces have a general visual representation or have diverse realistic states, solid, liquid, bloody, with puss for infection identification purposes?

If faeces will be visually realistic will it impact game ratings?

Many infections lead to uncontrolled defecation. Will you implement it or player will always be in control?

If player is not defecating in time will you implement uncontrolled defection and it’s “aesthetic” consequences?

Will there be an indication for players need to defecate?

Will you implement urination and associated symptoms for the Hep infection?

Infections and their treatment

Will you risk being infected if you perform the “Hide body” action?

If yes, will you introduce other means to dispose of the infected corpses, such as a jerrycan of gas and matches to burn it?

Will you risk getting an infection while performing some medical assistance to the infected player, bandaging, morphine injections etc.?

You introduce antibiotics, but antibiotics are not just single intake medicine and require regular intakes over the time and can be useless if used irregularly. Will it be simulated in DayZ or you just simplify it for the sake of the gameplay?

Will you make antibiotics only in pills or injections too (with disposable syringes maybe) for better and faster effect?

Will you implement disposable surgical gloves (garden gloves etc.) to be used to prevent being infected while looting a body or inspecting it?

Will gas masks help in any way to not get infected?

Will closed water sources, such as water pumps, be able to get contaminated by infections somehow?

Will a water source clear itself from contamination over time or it is permanent?

Will there be a means to clean contaminated water source from infection?

Will rain affect the spread of an infection, e.g. infected corpse liquids are washed into a nearby water source and contaminate it?

Will rain have the same effect on the faeces nearby a water source?

Will disease symptoms be visual on the player model, like pale skin, rash etc. to identify infections of dead or alive players?

Will you introduce a thermometer to measure the high temperatures precisely?

Will you implement realistic incubation times for all the diseases?

Will we have to undergo treatment as long as we have to do it in real life, or the curing periods will be tweaked for the sake of the gameplay?

Will an infection have a realistic lifetime period in the dead body?

Taking into account the realistic infection lifetime, will a dead body be staying in the world permanently until buried or decayed?

If yes, will it leave skeleton in the final stage of decay?

If a dead body will get deleted to clear up world and database in a shorter period, will it’s stying be prolonged if there are players around or it is spotted (delete only idle, deserted corpses)?

Will we be able to drag an infected corpse to water and make it contaminated?

After an attack on a player involving a bloody open wounds, will zombies and predators have a temporary ability to infect other player upon hit (blood on hands\claws for Hep and non-blood hits for Cholera)?

Will there be any HUD or visual signal about your hands or body being stained with another player’s blood after e.g. bloody body hit or looting?

Will there be a chance of acquiring infection without symptoms\lethality and just be an infected carrier?

Will items and weapons get contagious if carried by an infected player?

Will you 100% positively get infected with cholera if you loot a body of a player infected with cholera?

If you loot a dead body infected with cholera and take weapon or items, then give them to another player - will he risk to be infected?

Will there be a means to clean items and weapon from infection and make it non-contagious?

Will blood spots be visible on items and weapons if a player possessing it had a bloody open wound?

If your hands are covered in blood, will you be able to leave stains on items?

There are highly contagious infections transferred by touch. Will we be able to get infected if we just stand (push\elbow\model collide) an infected player?

After you hit an infected player with a hatchet\crowbar\machete etc. will you be able to infect your other victims with this melee weapon?

Will vaccine have a permanent immunity to a disease or the effect will pass over time?

Will vaccine be able to cure or at least diminish the infection if it is taken while already being infected and having the symptoms?

Can you confirm player can get infected with clothes belonging to another infected player?

Will a player be able to know he is having abdominal pain, a headache and etc. non visual symptoms?

Will players be able to rest (lie down) as a part of “prescribed” therapy during treatment of certain infections?

Will resting have any effect on symptoms or progression of the disease?

Will diseases affect the physical state of the player, e.g. ability to sprint, develop fatigue, collapse?

Can a player have numerous infections with all the symptoms combined?

Will you introduce unknown and undocumented diseases?

Will you implement some diseases which cannot be cured at all?

Will you be artificially introducing the sources of infections on the map?

This topic is not about how you like or dislike this feature, it is about Rocket's clarifying the mechanics of infections and defectaion, the features that he confirmed for the standalone.

So there is no point in arguing whether it must be present or not in DayZ. It's a fact told by the developer. Now we accept this fact and ask him questions because now we need to know the details of the mechanics, because these features are unique to games and thousands of people just can't imagine how it gonna work. Let's discuss his answers or my questions if they are not clear enough.

If you need to express yourself on these features, if you want to explain why you love it or hate it, please, go to this thread.

Hmm I don't think I've ever played a game where there has been such an in depth discussion about the role of poop. I don't know what worries me more, the fact that such a discussion is taking place or that its in the game in the first place. I'm actually rather intrigued!